Adventures in Dogwalking: Betty

I got to the SPCA shelter at 9:50am, hoping to walk my new favorite pick of dogs, Bowe (another cute, fuzzy German Shepard). Despite my early arrival, it seems there were others that arrived even earlier than I as Bowe was already out on his walk. I was a little dismayed, but there will be other walks!
So I got Betty. Betty was in stark contrast to Ruby, the dog I walked last time. She was some kind of pittbull-mastiff mix, and was clearly a very, very oooollld dog. There was some speculation that she might've been raised and kept in a puppy mill, as her teats protruded and sagged beneath her belly as if she had too many puppies in her lifetime. She also had scabbing around her elbows.
Perhaps it was due to her age, or perhaps she had some foot injuries, but Betty was very slow and seemed to not want to walk too much. She would take a few steps, and then suddenly stop and not want to move. My gentle tugs and calls of "Let's go, Betty!" would eventually elicit a response and she would slowly trod beside me, but then she would stop once more. I admit I was somewhat disappointed; I expected a brisk walk around the forest like last time. Plus, I was worried that because she wasn't walking, I was wasting her precious time outside of her kennel.
From other volunteers, it appears Betty has been at the SPCA for a while now. A gentleman told me that his wife walks Betty, and often she doesn't want to walk and just sits there. That was reassuring, so instead of trying to make her walk all the way around the trail, I settled for walking her back and forth in a little "U" shaped trail around the front of the fenced in area (Also the area where the treats were kept. Coincidence? I think not!) She seemed more comfortable in this area, as it was easier to encourage her to walk this route.
Regardless of her hinderances, Betty was a very sweet, laid back dog. When the other dogs would come nearby, she would either sit back on her haunches and wait patiently for them to pass, or she would want to go and meet them and sniff them. Due to her breed, she also drooled alot. And when I say drool, I don't mean drool like a baby drools. Betty's drool was comparable to a long, thick, slimy booger that you might get when you have the worst flu ever and can't stop your nose from running. There was an incident where Betty and a new friend were nuzzling each other, and the other dog literally got covered in drool (they had to towel him off afterwards).
Because she wasn't so much of a walker, I got to just massaging and petting her during those long minutes of sitting around. I was probably enabling her aversion to walking (although it's probably not so much an aversion as to she just has trouble doing it) but she seemed to really enjoy it. After I would massage her for a bit and take my hand away, she would immediately look up at me with her big brown eyes as if to say, "Why are you stopping?" During the last ten minutes of her time out, I let her off her leash and gave her a brushing. As soon as I started massaging her again, she slowly lay down on her side and just stayed that way until it was time to go back. When I got the leash again and said, "Time to go back!" she didn't even need spurring, she immediately raised herself up and let me clip on the leash and trotted back with me.
Even though I had initially wanted a big bouncy, energetic dog to walk today, there's something to be said about spending a quiet morning out in the sunshine, massaging a big gentle Grandma who just wants to lay at your feet. Kudos to Betty!

P.S-to all the single girls out there, there was a really cute, buff volunteer heaving all the giant bags of dog food into storage. He seemed friendly, said "Hi" to me when Betty was sniffing around the bags, and we had a laugh together at a joke I made (Wahahahaha!). Come voluteer at the SPCA!